No, we don't do wedding videos (or the like!) and are not remotely interested in getting involved with Bridezilla culture at any price! We won't transfer your VHS collection to DVD nor your Super-8 movies; and really cannot help you with requests for clips of old programmes you may have seen on TV - because we simply don't hold the rights to them!
Please review our comments below with respect to production lead times and availability. Unlike the cowboys we don't just roll into town, shoot from the hip and count the bodies later1 And no - we really don't do business in London at all! - We don't film there, we don't do meetings there... We just don't go there! - It's simply not worth the hassle!
CORPORATE AND BUSINESS VIDEO ENQUIRIES
This is very-much what we specialise in! And to help
keep the final costs to you down, we try to eliminate all
cost-drivers that do not directly contribute to the quality of our
programmes. To this end, we do not provide a 'front of house' service
- because the cost of this would wind up on your bill without
delivering anything by way of extra value! - Instead, all enquiries
are directly handled by the production staff themselves, as and when
available.
OUR STANDING POLICY IS NEVER TO GIVE ANYONE THE HARD SELL NOR PRESSURISE THEM IN ANY WAY - BUT WE MAKE NO APOLOGY FOR BEING BLUNT!
The Caledonian Television Company™ won't always tell you what you want or expect to hear... We will however always try to tell you what you really need to hear!
We are in a position to offer a range of services; advice on audio-visual deployment, project management, technical stewardship and of course business video production. but we strongly reject the 'Jack of all trades' model as transparently misleading and dishonest.
We have no 'upsell' - and we don't see clients as a resource to be 'hooked and stitched up like a kipper'! Nobody here thinks they're a Pirate either!
We offer the simple advantages of a legitimate business headed by an experienced broadcast professional of over 40 years standing. - This includes in excess of 33 years specifically in corporate video as well as 12 years lecturing in TV production. Our charges are among the lowest in the legitimate industry, and we are here to help you come to a rational, informed business decision as to whether a professional video production is a good fit for you, your budget and your communications strategy.
What we will guide you towards is Blue Chip quality video at affordable prices. Business presentations that embrace Audio-Visual literacy, legitimacy and broadcast quality and that are legally safe to use; fully compliant with all copyright and IP regulations. - Professional communications that show you're serious!
And that's as much of a pitch as you'll ever get from us! The next step in the process is to discuss your needs!
Please understand that your initial enquiry will really need the close attention of an experienced Project Manager, who can take the time to properly explore your need and answer your questions - and they're very-often out actually making programmes! There is no point in wasting what is ultimately your money having an underling on the end of a phone to tell you that the person you need to speak to isn't around and just take your details!
For that reason, we would strongly suggest that the best way to make initial contact with us is probably via Email;
Please note that, due to persistent spamming and Google's refusal to do
anything effective about it, messages sent from any Google mail service
will be rejected by our server - we regret the inconvenience but these
services account for over 90% of the SPAM we receive! - We also
block a number of country TLDs (Russia, Nigeria, India, China etc) as
well as many of the 'novelty' TLDs including (but not limited to) the
likes of .bet. .date .info as these seem to have been eagerly
adopted by spammers/scammers. - SPAM emails that do slip through
the net get the sender immediately blocked at server level and where
necessary reported to the police.
TELEPHONE POLICIES
Our main telephone number is staffed on an ad-hoc basis (by the production staff) supported by a 24-hour answer service. In practice, staff are generally available able to deal with telephone enquiries for over 80% of the working week - please remember that this is a part of our cost-cutting strategy which is designed to keep the end cost to you, the client down. Bona-fide clients and partners are provided with an unpublished business mobile number for their assigned project manager as well as a direct email address for them.
WE RESPECTFULLY REQUEST NO CONTACT FROM THOSE
INVOLVED IN TELESALES OR RECRUITMENT ACTIVITIES,
THIS INCLUDES BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO THOSE SELLING DIRECTORY LISTINGS
AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
AND ADVISE THAT OUR NUMBERS ARE REGISTERED WITH CTPS.
AVAILABILITY AND LEAD TIMES
The first rule of professional video production is
that it takes time! The second rule is that time is money, and
shouldn't be wasted!
We are quite happy to try and help folk out in a crisis and
back onto the straight and narrow! However, unlike so-called
'semi-pros', Jack of all trades chancers and 'cowboy videographer'
brigade - we won't just roll up, start shooting from the
hip, and 'hope' that we can somehow cobble something together
later! - Just 'winging it' is the reserve of amateurs, and we're
simply not that! Decades of experience tells us that this is one of
the quickest and worst ways to burn money and cause project failure!
And we have absolutely no interest in making disaster movies! - Nor
really in getting involved with projects where there is no real grasp
of the need for proper organisation!
Having a camera crew standing around 'with the meter running' while
people argue about what to do next just isn't an efficient use of your
money. Likewise, shooting from a half-baked plan (such as just a
storyboard or outline script) will cause things to be either
missed altogether or rendered difficult or impossible to edit any sense
into! - At best this sort of thing will take many times longer in post
production (costing far more than it ought to!) and is unlikely to yield
results as good as they could have been!
Any legitimate professional worth their salt will
always strongly advise against shooting a video without a proper
script and production plan in place!
For that reason, we plan and project manage the production of your
programme in exactly the same way we would for any full broadcast
production. This, quite obviously, takes time! And so,
generally speaking, there will normally be a period of at least 8-12
weeks between us receiving your initial enquiry and your programme being
shot. Post production - editing and finishing - will take a further 3-6
weeks. An in all cases it's better to contact us
sooner rather than later - the earlier the better in fact! It's not
uncommon for us to be in discussion with clients about programmes that
will shoot in several months or even a year's time - we already have
bookings for the summer of 2020 and the Spring of 2021!
OUR CURRENT PRODUCTION SCHEDULE IS SUCH THAT WE ARE PLEASED TO
CONSIDER INITIAL ENQUIRIES FOR NEW PROGRAMMES SHOOTING FROM
MONDAY THE 13th OF JANUARY 2020 ONWARDS - THAT MEANS BEGINNING THE
PLANNING PROCESS NOW!
We advise that, in order to secure a shoot early in the New Year
(mid-January/early February) it will now be necessary to have consulted
us, agreed a schedule and lodged your deposit before close of
business on the 25th of October 2019. - This is largely
due to the festive season holidays.
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL CLOSE ALL TECHNICAL OPERATIONS FROM
FRIDAY THE 6th OF DECEMBER 2019 UNTIL MONDAY THE 6th OF JANUARY 2020.
- THIS IS TO ALLOW OUR ANNUAL SYSTEMS OVERHAUL.
FIXING OTHER PEOPLE'S DISASTERS!
Yes... We will try to help if we can! Many of the
enquiries we receive are from those who have been let down by 'Jack of
all trades' and 'videographer types', asking if we can fix the
problems they have caused. Or if we can re-work old videos that they
have. The short answer is that technically we can handle most existing
video files as well as tape in VHS, SVHS, U-Matic (LowBand), BetaSP,
HDV and Mini-DV formats. However; it's not just a matter of being able
to play and edit the video!
Very often we cannot use any existing footage due to its poor technical
quality; sometimes it's just too far gone. In other cases the
'videographer' involved either won't release rights to the material in
question - or cannot be found to secure those rights! - In either of
those cases we cannot provide a re-edit because the law just does not
allow us to do so, and we do operate within the law at all times -
NO EXCEPTIONS! - A full re-shoot may then be necessary. - We
need to look at each request on a case-by-case basis.
Likewise - to be blunt about it - projects often fail because the commissioning client has no effective project management in place - and/or they simply will not stick to a project plan, and keep moving the goalposts - or has otherwise acted unreasonably and consequently had service withdrawn by another video producer.
Whilst we are not unsympathetic to those who have been let down at the last minute or just waded in too deep; we don't feel that it's in our interests to get involved in already-chaotic projects where lessons haven't been learned! - However, we are happy to review such projects with a view to putting proper and complete project management in place, and can provide stand-alone project management and consultancy services where a project has got 'out of hand'.
We do strongly emphasise that all our services, without exception, are fully chargeable - we work to a strict schedule, plan and protocol - and we reserve the absolute right to withdraw service from those who are in any way unreasonable, uncooperative or in any way bullying or intimidating towards our staff.
Where we do withdraw service in those circumstances the work we do to
the point of withdrawal remains fully chargeable.
BROADCAST ENQUIRIES
The Caledonian Television Company™
- also known as Caledonian TV™ and
Caledonian Television™
- has been trading since 1986. WE ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF PRODUCING
CORPORATE VIDEO AND ONLY MAKE CORPORATE AND BUSINESS
PROGRAMMES UNDER THIS BRAND NAME. - Whilst we
do provide crew for newsgathering and independent broadcast production
- we don't make broadcast programmes under the Caledonian
TV™ name!
Please note in particular that we do not hold the rights to any programme you may have seen on the BBC at any time! We are not involved in the production or promotion of Gaelic programmes and no-one at Caledonian TV is among the 1% or so of the Scottish population that actually understands this language! Therefore we cannot assist you in tracing clips from or DVDs of any such programme!
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION...
The Caledonian Television Company™ is based on the outskirts of Edinburgh on the border with West Lothian, which gives us easy access to Livingston, the M8 corridor and Glasgow, the Clyde Coast and Dunbartonshire, the M9 towards Fife and Perth, the A1 South towards the Scottish Borders and of course the A71 which provides a fast link to Kilmarnock and Ayrshire. Primarily, we seek to serve businesses in the Scottish Central Belt, West Coast , Dumbarton and the West Highlands, Stirling, Fife, Lothians, Borders and East Coast, as well as Northumberland and Cumbria in a line roughly North of the A69
Subject to availability, we do also provide film services to
most other areas of the UK with some exceptions
WE DO NOT PROVIDE ANY SERVICE IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS.
1) Areas inside the London LEZ/inside the M25.
2) Areas inside the Birmingham CAZ.
3) Areas inside the Glasgow LEZ. - Glasgow-based business OUTSIDE the LEZ are unaffected.
4) Bath
5) Sheffield
6) Greater Manchester
7) Oxford
8) Leeds
POLITICAL AND OTHER CONTENTIOUS ORGANISATIONS.
The Caledonian Television Company™ is and seeks to remain a politically-neutral company. We do not produce videos for political parties or pressure groups of any kind, nor do we endorse them. Caledonian Television™ takes a particularly firm stance against racism, classism and sectarian bias - and all forms of bias in relation to legally protected characteristics and other birth/circumstantial characteristics.